Octreotide in Treating Patients With Cancer-Related Malignant Ascites

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Kaplan Meier curves will be constructed for each group; patients lost to follow up will be censored. A log rank test will be used to compare groups. We will adjust for the volume of fluid withdrawn at paracentesis and for change in abdominal circumference between baseline and the next procedure because a patient may require an extra paracentesis if only a small volume is withdrawn at baseline.

We will compare the number of paracenteses between groups. Parametric or nonparametric testing will be used as appropriate.

Average Quality-of-life [ Time Frame: Up to 2 years ]

Quality of life will be recorded and analyzed in a descriptive, exploratory fashion. We acknowledge that this study will represent the first to attempt a prospective assessment of quality of life in patients with symptomatic ascites. The underlying hypothesis of this quality of life assessment is that patients who are receiving octreotide will enjoy a better quality of life compared to patients who receive placebo. Quality of life scores from the CLDQ will be summed for all patients on a monthly basis. Again we anticipate high patient drop out rates over time within these two cohorts. With due diligence, we will attempt to ascertain the reason for each patient drop out, and appropriate imputation techniques will be employed for each.Quantified as: 1='All of the time' 2='Most of the time' 3='A good bit of the time' 4='Some of the time' 5='A little bit of the time' 6='Hardly any of the time' 7='None of the time' 0='Missing';